


got me shackled in my embrace

by Dawn_Blossom



Series: Chrom/Grima in Askr [11]
Category: Fire Emblem Heroes
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-12 01:30:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18436223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dawn_Blossom/pseuds/Dawn_Blossom
Summary: When Grima has a nightmare at the Aether Resort inn, Chrom is there for him.





	got me shackled in my embrace

**Author's Note:**

> Aether Resort is the cutest thing since accessories and yet... Somehow, I had to latch onto the nightmare inn event, the one and only event that isn't purely a joy and delight... 
> 
> I blame stress.
> 
> Speaking of latching, the fic's title comes from [Latch,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTYnQQ7za64) which is originally by Disclosure feat. Sam Smith, but the version I have on my Chrom/Grima playlist is actually the cover by Kodaline. Why? Because it changes the line "I got you shackled in my embrace" to "You got me shackled in my embrace" and honestly? That difference means everything to me. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy the fic! I really just wanted some self-indulgent hurt/comfort, so... I might write some more Aether Resort-centric fics later; I haven't decided yet. But for now, you get this ^^

Grima does not feel that he particularly _needs_ a vacation, no matter what Kiran says about the subject. Of course, when Kiran offers him a free trip and suggests he bring Chrom, Lucina, and Morgan with him, he has no reason to say no, either.

The inn Kiran booked for them is nice enough. It’s close enough to the beach to provide convenient access, but not so close that the sounds of people screeching up and down the coast would disturb them. There is a hot spring right next door, with private baths available solely for the inn’s residents (and though Grima has already experienced enough indignity around bathhouses to swear off them entirely, he thinks that Lucina and Morgan look excited about the possibility of going). The surrounding area is filled with shops and restaurants, and Grima has already caught several places drawing Chrom’s eye. There will be plenty for them all to do in the morning.

For now, though, they all agree to rest. It took them all day to reach Aether Resort, after all, and it is too dark now to be traversing unfamiliar streets.

There is only one complaint Grima can make about the inn. It is luxurious, but it is too small. Only a few rooms are available on any given night, and it seems that Kiran was only able to reserve one. But though there are multiple beds and plenty of space to spread out within it, it is not the physical properties of the space that give Grima pause.

“Which bed do you want, Grima?” Chrom asks. He’s carrying both his luggage and Grima’s, and he would surely like to set them down now. But he waits, letting Grima take his time considering.

“By the wall,” Grima says after a moment. And then, because he can tell what Chrom is going to do if he doesn’t, he points to the bed lying parallel to it. “You take that one.”

“Er…” Chrom falters, his own luggage already hovering above Grima’s chosen bed. But he quickly steps back. “Okay…”

Grima quickly turns away. It isn’t that he doesn’t want to share his bed with Chrom. On the contrary, his chest tightens at the thought, for it’s been over a year since he’s had to fall asleep without a warm body beside him. 

The problem now is that it isn’t just the two of them alone. He does not want Morgan to see her father reduced to clinginess. He does not want Lucina to see _her_ father in the fell dragon’s literal clutches. It’s better for all of them this way.

So why does he struggle so much to fall asleep? He lies still and tense, not wanting to toss around and wake the room’s sleeping occupants. His body, fragile and human as it is, will ache in the morning if he does not rest, But that thought certainly does not soothe him.

He wants to turn and look at Chrom. He doesn’t dare.

Eventually, he falls into slumber. But he sorely wishes he hadn’t.

He knows exactly where he is, though it is too dark to see more than a few feet in front of him. He knows every twist and turn of the labyrinth he long ago inhabited. Cold and alone, he can only follow the same paths he always does.

But no… He is not alone. There is one warm body left in this place.

“Grima,” a quiet voice coos. “Come heeeere.”

Grima freezes, his heart pounding. He is not as stupid as his creator thinks. Forneus is trying to kill him. The tiny, miserable human thinks he can overpower the dragon he built to be invincible.

“I made a mistake,” the voice continues in a hushed whisper. “A monster like you shouldn’t exist.”

Grima whirls around, his fury already turning to dragonbreath, and prepares to eviscerate every last trace of the Thabes’s most successful alchemist from this plane of existence.

But then he catches blue eyes. He stops in his tracks.

“Chrom?” The name falls pitifully from his lips.

“The world can’t handle the darkness you would bring,” Chrom says. “I have to make things right. I’ll kill you with my own hands, Grima.”

“But…” Grima shrinks back. “Why? I… I love you…”

Stupid. What he feels doesn’t matter. He is either a tool to be used or a villain to be despised. 

And if Chrom despises him…

“Fine! You never have to look at me again, then!” Grima growls. “If you can’t stand to be with me, I’ll put you out of your misery!”

He wouldn’t be able to rein his power in if he tried. He closes his eyes so as not to see the shower of magic and blood he knows is coming. His chest hurts. He didn’t want this to happen. Why is the world like this?

He bites back a scream of anguish. No one would hear it. He is alone.

There is nothing warm left in the labyrinth.

“Grima,” the walls around him whisper as though heralding their new master. “Grima… Grima…"

“Grima!”

Grima’s eyes fly open to the sight of a very alive Chrom. He is sure his expression must look pathetic, but he is struck with such profound relief that the corners of his eyes well with tears.

“I’m sorry,” Chrom whispers. “It looked like you were having a nightmare. I just wanted to… do _something._ ”

“I don’t deserve you…” Grima says unthinkingly. He grimaces when his words catch up to him, but they are perfectly true. “I killed you, Chrom. In my dream.”

“Oh…” Chrom frowns. Surely there is no good way to react to information like that. 

“Yes,” is all Grima says.

After a moment, Chrom speaks again.

“Why did you kill me,” he asks, “in your dream?”

Grima looks away.

“Because you hated me,” he says. It makes for a terrible justification now that he’s said it aloud. Hatred does not _force_ hands. But he was dreaming, not thinking straight, and killing is always the easiest option for someone of his strength.

Chrom gives him a gut-wrenchingly sad look.

“It was only a nightmare,” Chrom says. “I would never hate you.”

The thing is, Grima can believe it. If Chrom resolutely refuses to hate him now, he cannot imagine what terror he would have to inflict to change his mind. And yet the logic does not ease his mind. Chrom _should_ hate him; everyone should! He is the damnable, loathable reflection of the humanity’s darkest thoughts. Why should he live a happy life now when he’s already ruined so many others’? A monster like him should _not_ have ever existed. If Chrom wanted to get rid of him now, wanted to right the mistake Forneus made thousands of years ago… It would not be unfair. How could Grima hold that against him?

Chrom places a hand on Grima’s shoulder. Soft, warm, and gentle, it does not condemn him.

“Can I…?” Chrom asks, tugging on the edge of the covers with his other hand. He wants in the bed; he’s wanted in from the moment Grima forced him away.

“But our daughters…” Grima mutters. Will it not look even worse for he and Chrom to have moved together in the middle of the night? He does not think Lucina and Morgan know just how painful it is for him to do anything at all without Chrom right there next to him. They do not need to know.

“Our daughters are hardly going to _judge_ us, Grima,” Chrom says. He squeezes Grima’s shoulder a little more tightly. “Please… I can’t possibly rest when I think about you suffering over here alone.”

“Well…” Slowly, Grima shifts sideways, pushing himself closer to the wall. “If it makes you feel better…”

Chrom crawls in immediately, quickly pulling the covers back up over both of them. Grima cannot resist the urge to press closer into Chrom’s chest. He is so warm, and he smiles so beautifully when Grima wraps his arms around him, ensuring that he cannot leave _now._

“It’s better now,” Chrom says. He presses a kiss into Grima’s hair and falls silent.

Grima is almost asleep again (a feat far easier now that he is surrounded by comfort) when he hears a faint whisper.

“If you ever stop trusting me, I really will have failed you…” Chrom’s eyes are closed; he cannot possibly know whether or not Grima is awake to hear his words.

Grima tightens his grip on his lover. Is that what Chrom thought, that he no longer trusted him? Nothing could be further from the truth, though perhaps his actions that night may have suggested otherwise.

“It’s too late for me to stop trusting you,” Grima murmurs. Chrom stiffens for a moment, but then relaxes again into Grima’s embrace. “That’s why the nightmares occur.”

“Then just keep trusting me,” Chrom says, “and I’ll protect you from them.”

Grima scoffs quietly. That isn’t how it works.

And yet, with Chrom in his arms that night, Grima is not plagued by any further dreams.


End file.
